Liveblog: Kings win 4-0, dust off the brooms

The only question is whether New Jersey can avoid a sweep.
The Devils had a chance, notably on an early 5-on-3 powerr play.
But they didn’t capitalize – NJ is 0-for the series with the man advantage – and a controversial goal by Alec Martinez sent the Kings on their way.
Anze Kopitar scored a highlight reel goal.
As if to rub it in on the punchless Devils, Jeff Carter and Justin Williams scored on L.A. power plays.
How’s this for a Cup-winning stat: 17 Kings have scored in the playoffs.
Nine different players have game-winners.
Not bad for an eighth seed, eh?

Jonathan Quick made 22 saves for his third shutout of the playoffs.

The Kings had 55 hits, led by Dustin Brown’s eight.

The Kings have led 3-0 in ALL FOUR of their playoff series.

And they haven’t played pushovers: Vancouver, St. Louis, Phoenix and now New Jersey.

Okay, so this is the part in the movie where the second-banana hero, the guy in the movie who’s best buds with the hero, and may even be funnier, but isn’t quite as handsome or tough or brave, think Goose in ‘Top Gun’ and you’re on the right track, anyway that guy at this point would yell at the hero and the damsel in distress: “Go! Save yourselves!” while the airlock creeped shut or the water rose in the engine room or he held the grenade in the cave/mine tunnel that was going to keep the ninjas/dinosaurs/Slavic bad guys from catching up while he nobly sacrificed himself.

We’re at this juncture in our own escapade, the one that’s lasted since Réjean Houle crowed about how insistent he was that he receive Jocelyn Thibault instead of Stéphane Fiset in return for Patrick Roy. And team captain Mike Keane. We’ve seen this in the movies before, Bruce Willis is about to win, except that he realizes that his daughter has been kidnapped and is being held hostage, or the bomb countdown was a sham, there’s a second bomb under a secret compartment in the futuristic foot locker the bomb disposal experts were crowding around, or he just pulled the trigger to kill the bad guy, but his revolver was out of bullets, because he can’t count to friggin’ six, and the bad guy escapes by jumping off the skyscraper’s roof and gets away. And he still has the annoying rebellious teenage daughter in his clutches.

So just as we thought there was light at the end of the tunnel we now realize that it was actually the cliché’d headlight of the oncoming train. We’re not about to kiss the girl quite yet. There will be some more bumps and bruises along the way. We’re likely to take a slug in the thigh or shoulder, nothing too bleedy, but it will make our final triumph even more worthy, against even more insurmountabler odds.

So it will be Michel Thérrien. Probably. Darren Dreger was a tool for his feeble attempt to play up to the Maple Leafs fans by suggesting a ridiculous, unnecessary and illogical compensation scheme for the Leafs to indemnify them for losing Rick Dudley to the Habs, but he’s not that much of a tool. He wouldn’t stake his reputation on this scoop, without modifiers or attribution, if he wasn’t certain. So it will be Michel Thérrien.

Michel Thérrien. I kind of promised that I’d trust the, uh, brain trust of the Canadiens to know what they’re doing, since they’re the ones doing the interviewing and research, and that they’d hire the best coach possible. But Michel Thérrien….

So what we must do now, and this isn’t inconsistent, since I’m a big believer in succession planning, and since we shouldn’t be caught in this same position of having few available candidates in two years or so, and I’m saying that without wanting to sound pessimistic, but what we have to do is stock Hamilton and and even Wheeling with young talented coaches who potentially have a future in the NHL. Even if they get poached by other teams like Guy Boucher did, it’s still not a bad idea to stock the pond with homeboys who we can poach back when needed.

Michel Thérrien….
———————————
In the very long view, it is important that kids growing up in Québec love the Canadiens and recognize themselves in the team, and a bit of the team in themselves. There must be a strong, visceral, emotional connection between the fans and leurs Glorieux.

At a juncture where the team is looking for a fresh, new beginning, a thorough process involving presumably smart men like Serge Savard, Bergevin, and Molson somehow ends up with Michel Therrien as HC. Am I missing something?

These guys should know, right? Maybe I’ll just stop and go to bed, my brain hurts…

I can’t see young players getting along well with Therrien (he’s too much of a disciplinarian) and I can’t see free agents chumping at the bit to come play for us (not that we were a favorite destination anyway).

I am worried about how an old school type like him will interact with Price and PK. We all had expectations too high for this thing. I will need to stop caring all that much by tomorrow.

By hiring Therrien, MAB has given his assessment of last year that THIS group could have been better with a motivator! Therrien will not mess around with guys like Kostitsyn and Gomez the way that JM did. You either care or you sit, no matter what name or salary. I realize this is not a popular choice but who says it has to be popular if it works.

I’d love for the posters who think Marc Crawford is a better coach than Michel Therrien to explain how he’s a better alternative.

Their respective CVs stack up. They’ve both had strong minor league careers with significant achievements. They’ve both made the Cup Finals (Crawford winning with a stacked Avs Team while Therrien faced a formidable Wings outfit…)

Therrien didn’t do so bad his first go round in Montreal. Theo and co ousted the Bruins and lost to the eventual Cup Champs (when Koivu’s eye got injured…)

Therrien seems to wear out his welcome pretty quickly, but Crawford’s teams don’t seem to get anywhere once they make the show (and that includes the Bertuzzi/Naslund Canucks!)

I get the whole outrage over the French coach requirement, but having seen Crawford learn French in the space of a season with the Nordiques (props to the man… very impressive), I don’t imagine that’s a critical factor.

Let’s face it. We’re stuck with second rate choices because Boucher, Muller, Lemaire and co are no longer available. Out of the remainder, there simply isn’t much left and there isn’t all that much separating the Therriens and Crawfords of this world.

You answered your own question. Theodore was the only reason Therrien had what you could call any small measure of success in Montreal.

In Pittsburgh, he had Crosby and company and barely managed to do well with that roster. In fact he was well on his way to flaming out miserably when the Pens did him a favour by firing him while only two games over .500 in his last season.

Crawford on the other hand had far from stacked teams in Vancouver, Dallas and Los Angeles.

Therrien is a tyrant. Crawford supports his stars instead of bashing them to the media when they don’t play a great game.

Crawford aside, the list of candidates more inspiring than Therrien is miles long.

Thanks for replying. I appreciate hearing the non-drivel type answer without the usual personal attacks. I do think Vancouver was a solid team that Crawford took nowhere.

And I’m curious to hear who you think would make a better candidate from that mile long list. Experienced coaches with superiors CVs just aren’t that available. Let’s name names. I’m just not seeing them.

One thing comes to mind Crawford has won the cup and isn’t a tyrant when it comes to dealing with his players. The bottom line is that Crawford was the better choice but he’s English. Screw winning or ever seeing a Stanley cup ever again if the French can’t see that it doesn’t matter what language the coach speaks, the players speak or even the GM the team still represents Montreal.

…it makes Me sick
…I’m at a loss for words …except those that are vile and obscene
…I am asking Myself whether I can watch another Habs’ game with that dweeb behind Our Bench
…well, I was hoping the Bergevin Honeymoon would last considerably longer but ‘it’s over’ as far as I am concerned

Crap, Darren Dreger isn’t that much of a tool. He didn’t use a “sources say” or “it is believed” or “may be”. This might be legit. Crap.

———————————
In the very long view, it is important that kids growing up in Québec love the Canadiens and recognize themselves in the team, and a bit of the team in themselves. There must be a strong, visceral, emotional connection between the fans and leurs Glorieux.

Living in LA and watching this cup run … just makes me sick to my stomach that I’m a Habs fan. Look at this team – emphasis on TEAM dominating a record 15 – 2 with hardly a superstar – and then look in the mirror as our pathetic organization argues over language while finishing last in the East … 24 stanley cups? well I won’t hold my breath for the 25th.

The thought of Guy Boucher coaching the Habs makes me sick. And I would greet him at the Airport, buy him dinner, pay for him to have the night of his life and buy him a house if it meant Michel Therrien wasn’t coaching this team.

So it begins. The calm before the storm. I can see it now. The coaching announcement is made and everybody snaps in unison. The delusion that was this placid calm soon to be shattered like so much glass. Crushed into dust and blown about in a whirlwind of agonizing teeth gnashing and belligerence. Gentlemen. Start your engines.

Was just about to shut it all down and I see Darren Dreger tweet that Michel Therrien is believed to be the choice that the Habs settled on.

If it’s true I will be disgusted. A guy that was two games over five hundred with the best collection of talent in the NHL, a guy who coached through the media by calling players out on a regular basis, a guy who was completely over matched by Mike Babcock in the Stanley Cup Finals. A guy with a career record of 215-172-30-24.

He was 43 games over .500 in Pittsburgh for two seasons and even money with the Habs.

He proved that this market was too much for him. He proved the Pittsburgh market was too much for him.

This is the one francophone hire that can be deemed unacceptable. If you were to go out and find the one guy who isn’t as good as the english speaking candidates available. He’s the one. ANYONE else would have been sufficient.

Hiring this man would be a disgrace to the franchise and a slap in the face of what was supposed to be a remodelling of this franchise.

This man is the reason that the Crosby and Malkin trade rumours started.

Okay. I’m done being pissed off. Time for a shot of whiskey and a terrible night’s sleep.

Hopefully when I wake up Darren Dreger will be proven wrong and all will be right with the World.

Just saw DD on Sportscentre repeating his tweet. Maybe Therrien has learned from his past follies. We can only hope. At least he is a coach that will stick up for his team if a bad call is made and not play hangman in his little book…..

I just hope that should Therrien be introduced as coach, Bergevin openly discusses precisely why he and his team have made this choice. I’d very much like to understand what makes him such an appealing candidate.

Same here, well we all know the real reason. Crawford is a french speaking anglo which isn’t good enough for some bigots in the french media. Roy doesn’t have the experience and he dropped the ball on Hartley so Therrien is the only choice left. The first bad decision from our new GM IMHO.

I agree HiB, Patrick Roy is clearly the best choice for our head coach.

———————————
In the very long view, it is important that kids growing up in Québec love the Canadiens and recognize themselves in the team, and a bit of the team in themselves. There must be a strong, visceral, emotional connection between the fans and leurs Glorieux.

Geez, he even used to play goal for the Kings. He should be a little more sensitive in what he says. Suggesting that a player be intentionally injured is way out of bounds. Good thing that he doesn’t work for the NFL…

___________________________________________________
Being a Hab fan is like buying real estate: only over the long-haul will you appreciate the true value of your investment.

This past season when Reimer & Gionta collided Healey called out Reimer for taking a dive & trying to get a penalty & as everyone knows now it was a serious collision. Sometimes Healy should stick to the obvious in his comments & the radar gun for shots & skating speed……

CBC is a joke they have some of the worst former players as “experts”. PJ Stock is a 4th line scrub who has no business on TV. Milbury is an expert at nothing and Healy is a douche career backup. The only one with a bit of smarts on CBC is Hrudey.

…with Nothing better to do as My Kids doing Their homework, I decide to relent and watch this meaningless, to Me, Stanley Cup game between the Los Angeles Pansies and New Joisey Evil-ones
…rather than the plasma I enjoy sitting in My home-office and watch it streamed on my PC …before finding CBC’s live-stream, I happen on it’s videos of last seasons games, including the January 7 3-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightbulbs
…I think to Myself, in the deep and enlightened I often do, whether I really will be more content this evening watching a game between the Pansies and Evil-doers, of whom I can not give a Flying-fig which Of Bettman’s teams win …or watch a game that would remind Myself that My Habsolutely wonderful Montreal Canadiens had actually won a game this past season
…well, so far, it’s 1-0 for the Lightbulbs …Carey letting in a ‘softie’ from the corner by Domenic Moore
…I will keep Y’all updated on Our imminent come-back
…right now Cherry is going-on about chiding Burke saying ‘the rats are takin’ over the ship…’
…anyhow, don’t mind Me …go back to whatever You were doing
…Go!!! …Habs !!!! …Go !!!!!